Peter Damm Guitarmaker
Repairs, Maintanance and Newly Created Musical Instruments
Gypsy-made violin
This violin has been in the attick of my Grandfather's brother.
It was his late wife's violin. And when I was a very young boy I could have it,
he said, if I climb up there myself, as he was already 80 years of age.
So I did, it was an exiting adventure as it was pretty difficult.
There were no floorboards up there, so you had to stay on the wooden beams.
As I come to think of it, it was very dangerous, because I could have fallen
through the ceiling of the bedroom underneath.
Anyway I got the violin downstairs in one piece.
Later in time the violin fell apart because of humidity I guess.
Gypsy-made violin
This violin has been in the attick of my Grandfather's brother.
It was his late wife's violin. And when I was a very young boy I could have it,
he said, if I climb up there myself, as he was already 80 years of age.
So I did, it was an exiting adventure as it was pretty difficult.
There were no floorboards up there, so you had to stay on the wooden beams.
As I come to think of it, it was very dangerous, because I could have fallen
through the ceiling of the bedroom underneath.
Anyway I got the violin downstairs in one piece.
Later in time the violin fell apart because of humidity I guess.
A Gypsy-made violin You can recognise this by the lack of time-consuming craftmanship and the cornerblocks are missing. The following picture will tell the tale.
Here you can see that they tried to imitate cornerblocks by gluing in a flat piece, so that when you look through the pinhole (tailpiece-fastener) it looks as though they were there. Obviously you cannot look any deeper into the violin so therefore they did not even bother with the corners in the upper bout.
The top is only half-carved or rough-shaped as the maker had to make a quick buck to feed the kids I presume. So it needed to be finished and sell quickly. Even the bass-bar is imitated by leaving enough wood on the plate to rough shape it.
The back is also very heavy, and I have decided to do a complete make-over for this violin as it has no special value or honour to be gained. so when I complete this violin it may sound even better!
The neck and a bit of the side attached.
As you can see the maker was very eager to finish this violin and was not at all careful with glue or finish.
A crack in the sides glued back together and later on this will be reinforced with another piece.
The reinforcement is a piece of bent side.
A testfitting done!
